SWNOVELS Chapter 3 Planning Ahead
Driving through the highway again while listening to my favorite era of music was awesome, even though the wind was blowing through my hair that wasn’t mine. But what I will say, though, is that driving through the highway listening to ‘Freedom!’ by Wham on the radio is something that I didn’t know I needed. You know, as I got closer to the Windy City and saw this new skyline, it made me realize something. In the past 34 years, my city had changed a lot; it was almost unrecognizable.
I mean, there were these billboard advertisements that I kept on seeing while driving that looked so different from what I was used to. The looks of the cars and the people really made it unrecognizable. Now, I don’t know for sure if my view of the world was through my mirrored self or my own self. That is still one of the big questions that I have about my whole experience. Driving through Downtown Chicago felt like I hadn’t left, but I started to notice a strange pattern while I was busy driving, and it kept on happening every time I stopped at a light. Where there would always be some guy in a car, motorcycle, truck, you name it right next to me and will do anything to get my attention.
Like I would get whistled or honked at once in a while too. Does this happen to every woman, or was I that hot? Finally, I saw Chicago University in the distance after a long 2 and ½ hour drive from Hawkesville, Illinois, and then I knew the fog must’ve dropped me off because I saw the “Thanks for Visiting Hawkesville!” sign before getting on the highway. Now, I will say that driving to the university was the easy part, but finding an open parking spot near the college wasn’t.
When I did eventually find a spot, I parked my car, got out, locked it, and headed out to who knows where. But I didn’t go far because, in the corner of my eye, I saw a book in the backseat, and it could possibly be her diary. Bingo, this is the answer I was looking for as to why Elizabeth was supposed to be here in the first place. I walked back to the car but had to unlock it first, and then I grabbed the book from the backseat to examine this so-called “diary” in her driver’s seat a bit more. A couple of pages in, I realized that what I thought was a diary was not a diary at all; it was her daily planner.
Well, a book’s a book, so I continued reading the calendar of events that she had planned. One of the pages was filled with some scheduling and a bit of erasing too on here, if I might add. I said to myself while reading, “Huh, I guess Elizabeth is a scheduled type of girl. Well, since I am her, this will help me out a lot.” Then I started to flip more of the pages to find any day that was important to her, but as I’m looking through the months of this year-long planner, I realized that everything was important to her. Like she had everything planned out from the moment she wakes up in the morning to the moment she goes to bed. She even had appointments for her hair, nails, and even when or what time her friends should come hang out at her place. Wow, talk about being organized.
As I’m flipping through more of her day-by-day calendar, I noticed that a particular date came up a lot, and that was September 7th. It seemed pretty important to her since that date was circled and starred. But there was something written on that date. So, I said in a terrible girl’s impression, “On September 7th, 1985, don’t forget to celebrate Tom’s birthday at home with family at 3:30 pm. Don’t be Late!! Be sure to dress nice and remember mom’s got everything covered!” Now, as I read that out loud, I couldn’t but sarcastically say, “Grrrreat, that should be interesting.”
After flipping back a few pages, I managed to find what I think was today’s date and said, “Here we go. On August 24th, at 1 pm, meet with family in the girl’s freshmen wing.” I looked at my car’s time, and it was 12:59 pm. “Oh, you gotta be kidding me.” I got out of the car, locked it once more, and ran as fast as I could to the freshmen wing.